Monday, November 1, 2010

Neighborhood Nicknames

Do you have "names" for people in your neighborhood that you either don't know, or don't like? We do...
  • Dysfunctional Family. This family lives behind us and down the hill.  They need full time therapy. All we know about them is the yelling, cursing, and cops.
  • Cloppity House. The guy walked home drunk in the middle of the night with clogs on. His steps made a "cloppity" sound. This happened five years ago, but the name stuck.
  • Yappity Dog House. These folks actually denied that their yappity dog barked all day while they were at work. Thank goodness they moved.
  • Unfriendly House.  For reasons unknown to us, the wife in this house just flat out doesn't care for us. Although her husband seems to like us, when she's around, he pretends not to see us. Poor guy...
  • Sliding Down The Hill House.  We live on the ridge line of a hill top. A house across and down from us a ways has slipped down the slope a bit. There is also a semi-wilderness trail that starts next to their house. (also known as "start of the trail house."
  • Cooper House.  These people now rent the house from the "yappity dog" owners. They have a stupid dog that they can't control. All we've ever heard them say is "Cooper, Cooper!" The dog just won't shut up. You can't have a conversation with them because the dog won't stop barking at you. I told the lady yesterday that I give up...
  • Start Of The Trail House (see "sliding down the hill house.")
  • Cat Murderer House.  These cruel people have lost 3 cats to coyotes, but they keep getting new ones. Someday, there is going to be a confrontation between the two of us.
We  also have neighbors that we like and know by name, so not everybody gets a "nickname."

I'm sure our house is known as "the guy wearing pj's at noon on weekdays drinking beer in the back yard" house"



thanks to Bossy Betty (one of my favorites) for inspiring this post.

55 comments:

  1. Oh goodness..growing up, the next door neighbors had a boy that was paralyzed. His 3 brothers would take turns driving the dirt bike up the ramp, 2 loops through the living room and back out the door, down the ramp (same people who tied their boxer dog to a piano and the damn dog dragged it all the way to the front door.)
    So I think I will name them..The NUT HOUSE!!!!

    ps..i like your "name"..pjs at noon..sweet

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  2. I generally like my neighbors, but a little further down the road we have

    Yours mine and ours - a family with 6 toe-headed kids living in a 3 bedroom house

    crotchety old fart - a retired old grump who calls the city if you remove a branch from your trees or forget to shovel the snow on your sidewalk

    --I'm pretty sure you can switch "the guy" in your nickname to "that girl from Newfoundland" and you have an extremely accurate description of me!

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  3. I think you should unleash all those creepy doll heads on the cat murderers. Scare them out of the neighborhood! Maybe the creepy doll heads will bring all the dead cats back to life and they will claw the murderers' eyes out.

    Sheesh....see what those creepy doll heads did to me?!

    ;)

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  4. I live in an apartment, but 2 of these names definitely work for our hallway neighbors. Especially DF!

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  5. Glad to know you are just as snide in your nicknames as we are!!

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  6. That's hilarious. I do the same thing. There was this one place we lived where gave the neighbors the nickname of 'devil worshipers' cause every night it sounded like they were killing some poor animal.

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  7. Yup, we live right next to slam-slam (they slam their car doors at least 20 times each night after dark) and zoomy (who must run his leaf blower down his driveway every night, leaves or not!).

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  8. I find that the nicknames lose their effectiveness once you get to know the person. The lesson here is not to get to know the person because nicknames are fun.

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  9. Well Pat we do have such houses in our neighborhood:
    The Billy Barty house where everything inside is built for 'small" people.
    The Persian Party House where the live music and its repetitive rhythm play into the wee hours of the night and all of us neighbors get to "enjoy"...not!!!
    The mansion on the hill: the house that took five years to build where every neighbor speculated who was going to live there. It has five pools, a lake with jet skis and so many other gaudy details...did I say excess beyond reason?

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  10. my neighbors back in michigan probably thought of me as "girl who drinks wine on the front porch in her bathrobe"

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  11. "the guy wearing pj's at noon on weekdays drinking beer in the back yard house"

    At least this one is a good name :)

    I mentioned on Bettys post about the "Goat Mans House" which needs no explanation Ha Ha

    And a house up the street from where we lived in NM is still called the "Drug House" even though the cause for this name was arrested and carried away, and now a completely nice family lives there.

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  12. Lynne - The visual of that dog dragging the piano out the front is hilarious.

    baygirl - We like most of ours also. "crotchety old fart." I think every nieghborhood has one of those...

    Marlene - I agree. In the past month there have been 4 dogs attacked in their own yards, right on our street. the people who allow their cats to roam around at night need something unleashed on them...that's for sure!

    Jesse - Yup, there are DF's everywhere...

    Bossy Betty - Ethics requires that we "tell it like it is!" Right?

    Tim - I'm glad we don't have "devil worshipers" here. Or maybe we do, and we just don't know about it...

    Brian - "Slam-Slam." that's a great one!

    Budd - you are right! especially so if you like them...

    DrSoosie - Wow! Now that's an assortment of different names. I'm sure not to many people reading this know who Billy Barty is. Alas, I know quite well...

    Vencora - Now isn't that what front porches are for?

    Jimmy - Yup, as long as the beer is cold! Goat Man...that's a classic. My old neighborhood had a lot of drug houses! LOL...

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  13. Haha! The only name we have is for our neighbour next door - we call him Waldo from 'Where's Waldo', since he pops up all over the place!

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  14. We also have a "guy in his pjs at noon in the garden"...only he is usually out there smoking (and hacking his lungs out) not drinking beer :) He has a sister (both in their 20s, still living with mum) who likes to play the Dirty Dancing soundtrack, continuously, VERY LOUD.
    Then there's the "Selfish ^&*% who sometime revs his motorbike at 6 am on a weekend" and the "Ones with the 5 cats that crap in our garden"...
    Love Thy Neighbours!

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  15. Well we have a set of family (next door)'The hollering trio' because the mom and daughters are forever in hysterical battles of wit that shake and rattle the windows.
    Then there is a family I've nicknamed 'Pavarottis' (god bless his soul) for they talk the way he sang...

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  16. One of the perks, maybe the only
    one ,of living in the country...
    no neighbors within shouting distance... and Pat you could sit
    on the back porch drinking beer
    while naked and no one would know except maybe a stray deer.

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  17. Here in Spain we are getting more cruel nicknames, even put them to friends and call them by nickname.

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  18. Pat, this is how our list goes:

    Weird People
    Weirder People
    Weirdest People
    Freaking Insane
    STAY AWAY!!!

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  19. I had to call the city on the owner of the lot next door. He let's the grass and weeds and bamboo grow wild. There was a whole den of coyotes roaming the field and I worried everytime I took the dogs out...especially the puppy. They never go out alone or unleashed and I'm always packing my piece. Once the owner cut the the lot, I heard howling all night...I think they may have run over the den or litter with the brushhog. Very wild west in the heart of Big D.

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  20. Talli - That's funny! Where is Waldo?

    Nat - I not really out there that much! (at noon anyway). No outdoor cats where I live...

    faye - Oh yeah, and then deer would tell his friends, and they'd tell their friends, and so on and so on...

    Leovi - That's not too good, is it?

    Nevine - I don't think we have one of them on our block. Unless it's us...

    Chuck - thats not very good! You need to let your dogs out. Same thing here. The coyotes come around at around day break and cruise the back fence line, looking for dogs let out in the morning...

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  21. hahhaaa...we have a Junk House...she lives directly across the street and has an old boat and an old RV and several other pieces of crap in her yard which she complains "her kids" leave in HER yard. Lovely, just lovely!

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  22. Growing up, there was Binocular Face (he was always glaring at us from afar) and Spider Lady (she only wore black and really did look like a human spider.) I'm grateful that I don't have neighbors now who are worthy of nicknames.
    xoRobyn

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  23. Oh you are too funny, I had forgotten about "The Clampett Compound' a couple of really filthy hoarders (with a gun collection) with one really highly educated half of the couple, really amazingly strange.... and....

    The Pond House (the name for the local hospital's psyche ward) for obvious reasons...... EEEEK! :}


    Everyone at the PD adopted the names and I made them up, I'm still gloating after all these years, hey was that a song.....

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  24. Joan - That's a good one! I'm sure there are a lot of "junk houses" around...

    Robyn - wow! Those are some good ones! We've all got something...

    entre Nous - That's a classic "the Clampett Coumpound"...thanks!

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  25. This is really funny. I'm sure I'm the 'What-are-the-Gringos-doing-in-my-neighborhood' house. Even though I'm Canadian.

    CD

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  26. LOL We currently have the Yappity Dog House in the apartment below us, which is SO GREAT. (Not.) But they have a multitude of annoying habits, such as the pretendency to play their bass guitar so loud that it rattles things off my coffee table and entertainment center, and their ability to look through us when we say Hello, as if we don't exist. They enjoy loud house parties on Friday nights where their useless friends stand on the patio and talk so loudly, I can hear it in my house like they were standing in my living room shouting in my ear. They also have a charcoal grill on their patio, which is a fire hazard and against regulations for apartments, and one day I'm going to call the fire marshal on them AND these blasted apartment management whores. (Sorry, I get riled up. LOL) Mostly, we just call them The Clown Car For Assholes people, since they drive this souped up Corvette that we have dubbed (wait for it.........) The Clown Car For Assholes. REALLY hoping they move away, and the sooner the better!! On the floor beneath those FINE folks, there is one of those ghetto-ass couples who think it's proper to stand outside and have unbelievably loud cell phone conversations about every little detail of their pathetic personal life. And don't even get me STARTED on their grammar...if I didn't know any better, I would swear they were the wellspring of the entire ebonics language movement. (I don't think thy own a mirror, otherwise, they would see that they're as PWT as it gets.) They're very proficient at their choice of grammar. And their friends are even more obnoxious than they are! I haven't come up with a name for them yet, but I'm sure I'll have a doozer come to mind sooner or later. =) Your neighbors must drive you crazy!! That's quite a long list, for sure...

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  28. Hahaaha...Oh I got the funniest picture in my head when you stated what you thought people may call your house. (Don't know why...it just stuck me as funny!:)
    ANYWAY...
    we have a NOSEY House and an IN-LAW house right by us.
    And let me tell ya....most days I would like to move....or hide. Nothing is hidden from the nosey house....and all is seen by the In-Law house.
    I can't escape!

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  29. Too funny, and so very apt! I have Nutty-Nora-Next-Door, the most interfering, self-obsessed, bully on the street - the self-proclaimed authority on everything! Since her hubby escaped with his receptionist, she has adopted me as her "best friend" - I literally hide behind the door when she calls (24/7) round - but she knows how to pry the garage side door open, and just lets herself in, anyway - arghhhhhhhh..

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  30. Hmmm.... now you got me thinkin'... But pjs at noon... I'm rarely up at noon... :-D [I work European hours and live in Asia...]

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  31. This is so funny and so true. We've only been living in our house for 9 months, but we have "The Pool People," "The German Shepard People" (also known as the "Fireworks People," but that's only in warm weather), and then "The Cool Neighbors" - the ones we actually talk to. They probably call us "The Weird Young Hippie Couple with the Push Mower and The Baby."

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  32. Also, I just read the other posts about the "Drug House," and our neighbors (The Cool Ones, haha) told us that the very first people who lived here (Like 13 years ago), were arrested and sent away for drugs, so I wonder if the other neighbors still think of it as The Drug House.... :/

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  33. Mr. Tillet,
    Ann Best, a fellow Wido suthor put me onto your blog--come over to mine if you have time.
    Wonderful post. The South ( I see you are a Califonia gentleman) has always been a breeding ground for nicknames. The original "Bubba" I'm certain was born here--and you ever hear of L.S.U.'s Chinese Bandits?

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  34. Guy walks home drunk in clogs. Hilarious!

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  35. CD - That's a classic! I'm EVERYONE knows who you are also...

    passionofthemom - OH MY! It sounds like you really have to put up with a lot! I've had neighbors like that when I was younger. Heck, I probably was a neighbor like that when I was younger...
    there is always hope that they will move...

    Dawn - that sucks! I guess there is always hope that they will move! We currently have no busy bodies in the area.

    Shrinky - Nutty-Nora! LOL...That could get scary! What if she decides that she needs to "talk" in the middle of the night and scares the crap out of you...

    Francisca - That must be confusing! It's not just that I keep pj's on late, I also get up early!

    Sarah - "The cool ones!" that's a classic. So you will always be known as the people who live in the drug house!

    Paul - Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting! Much thanks to Ann. I am indeed from California, but I'm also from the south. I'll check out the Chinese Bandits.

    Sharon - thanks for commenting and signing on Sharon. I really appreciate it.

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  36. They call the little hill where we live "Pill Hill" because so many doctors live in the area.

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  37. pitchertaker - I know where one of those is also...a gated neighborhood, of course...

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  38. That's hilarious! haha!!

    Our neighbors are freakin' insane.

    Betty :D

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  39. lol...that's awesome. I was just recently having a discussion about how little we know some of our neighbors. Makes me wonder how our house is known.

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  40. Pat, when we know more do not you mind if you put a nickname?

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  41. Snicker, snicker.. these are quite funny except the sliding house on the hill.. stay out of the way of that house, Pat.

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  42. We have the "Family with Five Boys", the "Mean Asian Guy" and sadly the "Family whose Mom died". I think we are probably known as the "House with that really nice guy married to that recluse."

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  43. Betty - Then you should give them a name!

    Okie - thanks so much for stopping by and commenting I wonder the same thing!

    Leovi - That would be great!

    Pam - I agree, that house is close and our side of the hill is much steeper. Yikes!

    Random Thinker - Those are great names. Especially yours!

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  44. Ha ha! This is a hilarious post. It has inspired me to start giving my neighbor's houses nicknames. Our next door neighbors I shall call "Should be on the show Hoarders house"

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  45. It is a good idea.

    Thank you. ruma

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  46. We have nicknames for our neighbors too..It's kind of fun to read yours..

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  47. Cheeseboy - Thanks! I think I'm going to gather all these together and post a single list! I wonder how many folks are hoarders who we don't know about?

    ruma - Thanks Ruma!

    icy BC - And now, I want to read yours!

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  48. Pat- I don't know you know you but I know you well enough- to not believe you- that you call her "The Unfriendly House"-
    Mea Culpa if I am wrong.

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  49. Ren - That is so true! I guess you know me well enough...We also call her something much worse...

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  50. I think I did in my old neighborhood in Ohio... I KNOW my son and his wife do... they have the "Naked Neighbors"... does that tell you enough? LOL

    Out here, we don't have any close neighbors. Closest are a mile away. I like it that way. No need for nicknames. We just barely know them. :)

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  51. Ha ha..I'm still too new in my neighborhood to develop any names but at my Ma's house we have a few! Including:
    The SquidBillies Home
    Squidbillies comes on Adult Swim about these hick squids. Three families moved into this one home by my Ma and they have fan's outside, a bunch of cars and they are always outside in all weather drinking beers, having a good time! haha.

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  52. Yep, I just recognized the "dysfunctional family" description with a neighbour..! I wish they'd move!

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  53. I just realized this is the first neighborhood we have lived in where we don't have nicknames for all our neighbors. Maybe they have nicknames for us.

    The cat murderers, point them out and I'll see what I can do.

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  54. Wonder what the house was called where I lived in as a kid? No one tells us these things to our face.
    We were at a summer BBQ this past July and the truths came out amongst the hosts and old friends -old neighborhood kids - as to what their houses were called. HILARIOUS.
    Wish I could revisit some of the kids from my old neighborhood. This was a comical and fun post. Thanks for the smiles.

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  55. that is too funny! thanks for the link.
    we have nicknames for the folks behind us because we don't know them well enough to ... well ... care about calling them anything else. we have the "religious house" because when they first moved in they held bible study every wednesday night and church services on sunday morning ... and they left all the windows open, and spoke in tongues. bible study often went LATE into the night and we had to call the police to break them up at 1am.

    we also have the "druggie house" or we refer to the guy living there as the 'pothead', they live almost directly behind us. the bedroom on the corner has a box fan jammed into the window ... facing the WRONG way. we learned why a few nights after we noticed the eye sore. they have an adult son that smokes weed and blows it out through the fan.

    what's funny is if we slip and refer to these nicknames to our other neighbors, they all know EXACTLY who we are talking about.

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